Chapter 467: At the Martial Alliance (1)

WHOOOSH!

A horrifying wave of Killing Intent erupted from Jeokyeon.

It was hard to believe it came from someone who had cultivated Buddhist martial arts. The sheer viciousness of it was almost reminiscent of a demon who had trained in demonic arts.

Yeonsim recoiled in shock.

“Gate Master!”

Jeongan was just as stunned.

No matter how far Jeokyeon had fallen, this was beyond excessive. Her Killing Intent had strayed not only from the Buddhist path but even from the path of humanity itself. It would hardly be an exaggeration to call it the Killing Intent of an inhuman demon.

Jeokyeon growled under her breath.

“Were you talking about me?!”

Yeon Hojeong did not even bother responding to her. Instead, he spoke to Yangcheon.

“All sorts of things seem to happen in the great Fighting King’s own home.”

Yangcheon sighed.

“It was a remarkably peaceful place before I became entangled with you.”

“So, do I have permission?”

“You’ve already done everything except finish the job, and now you ask for permission?”

“You’re still the owner of the house.”

“You shameless bastard.”

Yangcheon nodded.

“I’ll notify the physician.”

The moment he finished speaking, Yeon Hojeong’s hand swept across his lower back.

SHRK.

The Black Dragon Axe was suddenly in his right hand.

From haft to blade, the divine treasure was entirely black, yet an uncanny sheen rippled across its surface.

Jeokyeon’s Killing Intent exploded.

“You bastard!”

FLASH!

Before Jeokyeon could even kick off the ground, a streak of pure white moonlight sliced across the great hall.

THUD.

“...!”

Jeokyeon froze.

Slowly, she looked down at her waist.

To her astonishment, her sword had been cut away together with its sheath and had fallen to the floor.

When?!

She had not even seen the instant he attacked.

The speed had been nothing short of a ray of light.

“Where are you looking?”

Startled, Jeokyeon spun and unleashed a palm strike behind her.

WHOOOSH!

What happened next was astonishing.

The force of the Avalokitesvara Divine Palm scattered thread by thread the instant it burst from her hand.

A moment later, Yeon Hojeong’s left hand clamped around her wrist.

CRACK!

“Agh!”

Jeokyeon dropped to one knee before she could stop herself.

Her legs had gone weak from the brute power surging through her shattered wrist.

Yeon Hojeong spoke coldly.

“Stop hurting yourself and others with that pitiful martial art. Go back to being a practitioner.”

His foot cut through the air.

BAM!

With a sound like a drum bursting, Jeokyeon coughed blood and flew across the center of the great hall.

That was the end of it.

Yeon Hojeong’s toes had struck with perfect precision and destroyed her dantian.

The Sea of Qi point was shattered, and the dantian itself broke apart. The power she had spent a lifetime accumulating vanished into nothing.

Jeokyeon trembled violently before losing consciousness.

Had Yeon Hojeong not restrained himself, every one of her internal organs would have been pulverized and she would have died on the spot.

Yangcheon let out a quiet murmur of admiration.

He really has changed.

This was different again from when the two of them had exchanged blows.

In terms of realm, there was no enormous difference.

The key lay in how Yeon Hojeong manifested his martial arts.

His martial arts could be reduced to two words.

Killing.

And destruction.

That was why they were savage, efficient, and overwhelmingly powerful. It was extreme violence born from combat instincts honed to their utmost limit, designed to break an opponent completely.

But now?

Disassembly.

There was no need to shed blood through unnecessarily violent techniques.

He seized the initiative over the opponent’s martial art itself, dismantled it completely, and rendered it powerless.

His ability to strike through openings remained unchanged.

Before, however, he would exchange techniques with his opponent and destroy them piece by piece.

Now, he broke them down before they could even properly use their martial arts.

Even the method of collapse had changed.

Rather than snapping, smashing, and bursting through everything, he simply neutralized it from the outset.

It was an extraordinarily impressive display.

Far more remarkable than any flashy or overwhelmingly powerful martial art.

And no matter how agitated Jeokyeon had been, her martial arts were still more than worthy of the leader of a sect.

That brat has truly reached the very end now.

The realm of the Martial God.

To Yangcheon, Yeon Hojeong now stood before the legendary sea known as the Limitless Realm, gazing out over its endless waters.

Yeon Hojeong turned to Yeonsim.

Her eyes were shaking as if an earthquake had struck.

“Do you want revenge for your master?”

Yeonsim had already drawn her sword.

The moment Yeon Hojeong’s axe had cut through her master’s sword, she had drawn it intending to stop the fight.

But she had been unable to do anything.

I can’t beat him.

It was not merely because he was an opponent she had little chance of defeating.

...Martial arts like that exist?

What she had just witnessed was something she could not perform.

A method beyond her current ability.

No—

Perhaps even if she trained without end, she could not say whether she would ever be able to make such a method her own.

That helplessness bound Yeonsim’s entire body.

People had another name for that helplessness.

Defeat.

Yeon Hojeong spoke calmly.

“Do you understand what the conversation between the Manor Lord and me was about?”

“...?”

“The reason the Putuo Hermitage you know is no longer what it once was is entirely the work of the Manor Lord sitting over there.”

Yeonsim stared at Yangcheon in shock.

Yangcheon merely smirked and propped his chin on one hand.

He looked utterly unconcerned, without so much as a trace of guilt.

Yeonsim asked in a trembling voice,

“The Manor Lord... did that?”

“Yes.”

“Why... Why?!”

Yangcheon answered in a tone so light it almost sounded cheerful.

“Because I wanted Putuo’s power for myself.”

The words were simple.

Yet the possessiveness behind them was terrifying.

It was an appallingly simple and personal desire.

Before Yeonsim could even feel anger, the depth of that desire frightened her.

The world—the martial world—could be ruined this badly simply because someone had chosen it as a target.

Perhaps this was what people meant when they said a single person’s will could change the world.

“...Then we came here and begged for help from the very enemy who turned our sect into this?”

“Enemy?”

Yangcheon sounded amused.

“If you truly followed the Buddha’s path, you would not see me as an enemy. Isn’t the reason you think of me that way because you, too, hated Putuo’s restraints?”

Sophistry.

Putuo had been a peaceful temple pursuing the Buddhist path, viewing the world through its own sense of justice.

Simply planting the seed of discord there had been wrong enough.

That was what Yeonsim believed.

And Yeonsim was, in fact, right.

The problem lay elsewhere.

“Admit it. You are not suited to the Dharma. You want to enter the world and make a name for yourself. You want to bring the talent inside you to full bloom.”

Yeonsim could not refute him.

She knew how shaken she had been by Yangcheon’s rebuke earlier.

She could not bring herself to speak a lie now.

Yangcheon continued with absolute certainty.

“Putuo’s collapse came from the shallowness of your cultivation. Your foundations had grown so loose that something as simple as sowing discord was enough to break you apart. Of course, I knew that, which is why I manipulated the conflict from a step behind.”

That, too, was sophistry.

Had Yangcheon never interfered to begin with, Putuo would not have fallen this far.

If a robbery occurred, the criminal was the robber. One did not blame the wealthy victim for having money.

But—

...

Once again, Yeonsim could not easily speak.

Yangcheon had called it nothing more than sowing discord.

If it had been Shaolin, would something like that have been enough to bring it down?

Before martial arts or values, this was a matter of cultivation.

Being robbed was tragic.

But as a swordswoman of Putuo, the shallowness of their cultivation was something she, too, had to reflect upon.

Yangcheon said,

“I’ll make myself perfectly clear. I want you.”

Yeonsim’s eyes trembled.

“Your talent is truly extraordinary. Commander Yeon over there called you a sword that might break at any moment, but as far as I’m concerned, you are already magnificent.”

He meant it.

Yeonsim’s martial prowess surpassed Jeongan’s. Even compared with Yeon Hojeong as he was now, the difference was not enormous.

“You know as well as I do that Putuo cannot return to what it once was. At least not immediately. Which means...”

Yangcheon raised his chin.

“Everything that bound you, suppressed you, and restrained you has fallen apart. In other words, this is your chance to cast all of it aside and pursue the life you truly want.”

“...!”

“Opportunities like this do not come often. Throw away a Dharma you never truly wanted and come to me. I promise you growth far faster and far more certain than anything you would achieve under Putuo’s soft teachings.”

A gentle smile spread across Yangcheon’s usually cold, arrogant face.

“Become a true Sword Empress. Not some half-finished Sword Empress who protects the Dharma yet never even gets to display her true ability.”

The temptation in those words was enough to send chills down the spine.

And because the man speaking them was Yangcheon, the Fighting King, they carried even greater weight.

Yeon Hojeong gave a bitter smile.

He really is greedy.

He had no intention of criticizing Yangcheon for it.

When all was said and done, the two of them were not so different in that regard.

He merely found Yangcheon’s shamelessness impressive.

The man could destroy a sect himself, then turn around and say something like that to one of its successors.

Yangcheon studied Yeonsim for a moment before nodding.

“I imagine deciding immediately would be difficult.”

“...”

“Whatever else she may be, that half-baked practitioner lying there is still the head of Lotus Gate and your master. In my eyes, she lacks even the slightest qualification to be called one, but when human attachment is involved, there is little point in arguing a person’s worth.”

Yangcheon sank back into his grand chair.

“Go to the infirmary with your master. Care for her and think it over. I can give you as much time as you need for that.”

Yeonsim stared at him with trembling eyes.

At last, her shoulders slumped.

As she was now, there was nothing she could do.

Nothing she could say.

And so Jeokyeon and Yeonsim left the great hall together with the warriors of Ink Dragon Manor.

“How was that?”

Yangcheon smiled at Yeon Hojeong.

“Did you enjoy watching me try to get my hands on both rabbits after all?”

Yeon Hojeong shook his head.

“Keep that up and you’ll choke.”

“I have quite the appetite.”

Yeon Hojeong turned to Jeongan.

She looked just as confused as Yeonsim had.

Even so, her clear, deep eyes still held the same righteous light.

“Things took a rather strange turn.”

“...They did.”

“Whatever happens, you’ll receive enough support to rebuild Putuo.”

Resentment.

Revenge.

For now, those things had to be set aside.

They lacked the strength.

Jeongan drew a deep breath, then gave Yangcheon a martial salute.

“I’ll withdraw for today. It was an honor to meet you.”

Yangcheon’s eyes gleamed.

“For today? Does that mean you intend to come again?”

“When I do, I will return as justice with the strength to uphold itself.”

Yangcheon looked down at her with a strange expression before speaking somewhat sourly.

“You really do have a remarkable number of talented people around you.”

Yeon Hojeong glanced at Gangryang.

Gangryang spoke to Jeongan.

“Let’s give them a moment.”

With that, Gangryang and Jeongan also left the great hall.

“Whew.”

Once only the two men remained, Yangcheon let out a quiet sigh.

It was filled with regret.

“Still, knowing you’re coming puts my mind at ease.”

Yeon Hojeong said,

“I’m not coming immediately. I still need approval from my side.”

“You can force something like that through on your own authority, can’t you?”

“Let’s say I can.”

“Then when do you think you’ll be here?”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes sharpened.

“There’s something I need to deal with at the Martial Alliance. I’ll take care of that first, then come.”

“Delegate some of these things to other people. No wonder you’re always so busy.”

“This is something I absolutely have to handle myself.”

“What is it?”

“There’s an infiltrator.”

“...?!”

“There is an agent of the Three Creeds among the Martial Alliance councillors.”

Yangcheon’s eyes turned cold.

“...Then you need to be there.”

His voice dropped.

“Without question.”